Telegram Vice President Ilya Perekopsky has compared the current dynamic in Silicon Valley to Tatarstan during the reign of the Mongol Empire, with every company paying tribute to the tech giants instead of the Khan.
Pavel Durov, Perekopsky’s boss and the founder of Telegram, had previously complained that Apple and Google collect 30 percent of app developers’ profits. According to Durov, Apple exploits developers twice – first by making them work for free to create an application that boosts the usability of their phones, and then by charging a commission on sales.
Apple and Google impose an insane 30% sales tax on all digital goods sold on every mobile phone in the world. The result – users pay higher prices, start-ups and entire industries get destroyed or never appear. Regulators have been ignoring this absurdity for 10 years. https://t.co/5QqJYyLrME
Speaking at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and representatives from the IT industry, Perekopsky criticized the current economic model.
“In Tatarstan, there used to be a Golden Horde rate, and everyone brought tribute, but now there is a rate somewhere in San Francisco, near the Golden Gate Bridge, and everyone brings tribute,” he joked. The gag appeared to land, as both Mishustin and Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov seemed to laugh.
The Golden Horde was a nomadic empire that originated in Mongolia, and conquered land across much of Eurasia. In the 1230s, Tatarstan (now part of Russia) fell to the Mongol armies and didn’t become independent again until the 1430s.
